Influence Of Date Of Planting And Time Of Introduction Of Maize On The Agronomic Performance Of Soybean-Maize Intercrop In Nigerian Southern-Guinea Savanna.

Field experiments were conducted during the 2007 and 2008 cropping seasons to investigate the influence of dates of planting and time of introduction of maize in a soybean/maize intercropping system at the Teaching and Research farm of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The experiment was laid out in a split-split plot replicated three times with two dates of planting (June 27 th and July 27 th ), three periods of introductions of maize (Simultaneous, two weeks after planting soybean and four weeks after planting soybean) and three cropping pattern (soybean sole, maize sole and soybean/ maize intercrop). The results obtained indicated that maize planted sole was significantly (p<0.01) taller than intercropped maize. There was significant reduction in maize plant height with delayed introduction and delayed planting. Days to 50% tasseling in maize was not significantly affected by time of introduction of maize. There was no significant effect of date of planting on vegetative or flowering parameters of maize assessed. The yield components and yield of maize decreased with delayed maize introduction. Date of planting only had significant effect (p<0.05) on 100-seeds weight of maize. Plant height and 50% flowering of soybean were significantly (p<0.05) affected by date of planting while there was no significant effect of time of introduction of maize on any soybean parameters observed. Results indicated significant effect of cropping pattern on number of pods/plant and grain yield. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) values generally showed advantages of intercropping, but higher advantages were obtained from maize introduction after two weeks of planting soybean. Keywords; Intercropping, Dates of planting, Time of introduction, yield and yield component, Land Equivalent ratio.